


Christmas Catastrophe

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: 12 Days of Ficsmas, He gets better, M/M, Trouble fucking wrecks himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 02:31:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17071790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Trouble's rider takes him to the Winter Village to meet up with some friends. Daine belongs to HellishSam, Willow belongs to willownorthbook, and Ella and Richard belong to ellawolfpaw on tumblr.





	Christmas Catastrophe

It had started out as a nice day. Such a nice day, with the blue sky of Jorvik even more cloudless than usual and the wind whispering through the treetops and the places where the grass grew longer, whipping through many a rider's mane as they galloped about on their horses. So nice, in fact, that Louisa had been feeling generous and had decided to bring Trouble out of the stable, normally leaving him in his stall because he was (and she had been quoted as saying this many times) "an absolute bastard who lives up to his name". Trouble didn't dispute this statement, in fact, he lived by it. If his rider wasn't in tears of frustration, then he wasn't doing his job correctly.

Though, Trouble did behave himself as Louisa rode him over to one of the many reindeer-driven sleighs that transported riders to a magical place full of snow and in eternal night (but it was a nice night, lit by a moon, unlike the eerie Jorvegian night lit only by stars). He even gave the other horses a friendly nicker of greeting, Louisa's friends having clearly decided to bring other horses who were more accustomed to the snow. Trouble knew that Louisa would have normally taken Solidheart (who had been utterly devastated upon learning that she would not be accompanying her rider to this magical snowy land), but he also knew that Solidheart had a nasty habit of wandering off and getting lost in the winter wonderland. Trouble admired her immensely.

"Hey, you made it," said Daine, grinning from atop his Jorvik Warmblood, Cloud. Cloud looked different today, evidently having decided to go full Lusitano. He even had both sets of wings, folded neatly over Daine's legs. Trouble didn't think much of Cloud, the boy wasn't that good when it came to getting up to mischief, too worried about upsetting his dad. No matter how many times Trouble had tried explaining to him where babies came from and that Daine was his rider, not his dad. Cloud still thought of the human as his father, though, which was odd but, well, Jorvik as a whole was odd.

"I couldn't miss out on the chance to visit the Winter Village with my friends, now, could I?" said Louisa, flashing Daine a grin as she stroked her hand over Trouble's neck.

"You sure about bringing that one?" Willow, another of Louisa's friends, asked, eyeing Trouble warily from atop her bay North Swedish named Faith.

"I can't think of a better horse to bring to slide around on the ice with," said Louisa.

"Well, if he breaks my arm, you're healing it," said Daine.

"Fair," said Louisa, shrugging. "Not sure how he's going to break your arm, though, you're not the one riding him."

"I don't think that's going to stop him," said Willow. She turned Faith towards the sleigh. "Anyway, let's get going, Jay and Ella said they'd meet us there. Oh, and Roo, she'll be there too."

"Let's not keep the lovebirds apart," said Louisa with a grin as she nudged Trouble's sides to get him to walk onwards to the sleigh. She spoke to the driver, a weird gremlin-looking thing dressed in a red Santa jacket and red Santa hat, and in moments, Jorvik disappeared around them, replaced by a starry nightscape that smelled of snow-draped pine and gingerbead cookies. A chilly wind whipped at them, making Trouble shiver from where he stood surrounded by wrapped gifts in the back of the sleigh.

While the other two horses left the sleigh at a good, slow pace, picking their way carefully around the presents (Cloud even nudged a fallen one back into place with a wing), Trouble had no such ideas. Instead, he crouched in the back of the sleigh among the presents until the horses had wandered a safe distance away. Only then did he explode out, presents flying out around him while the humans chastised him and ducked, covering their heads with their arms. Cloud backed up a few steps, ears pinned in concern, while Faith looked around in confusion.

"Dammit, Trouble!" Willow snapped, bending down to pick up the presents while Trouble stood where he was, tossing his head and looking proud as punch.

"I hope he's not showing off for his boyfriend," said Ella, the scientist who'd also recently drifted into their friend group recently (quite literally, she'd shown up in Pandoria on a floating island and had stepped off to greet them with Frostnova. She wasn't a native, she'd just been exploring and had gotten a little... lost). At the sound of her voice, Trouble stopped posing and turned to face her, hoping-

And there he was, his dapple grey coat picked out nicely in the moonlight, dipping his ears a little at the sight of the horse who held his heart. Trouble's knees trembled, his breath catching in his chest. There was a bunch of roses in the saddlebag that hung across his back. Trouble gave a happy whinny of greeting, immediately trotting over to nuzzle his fellow trakehner and boyfriend.

"If he was showing off, he would've been off down the ice slide in seconds," said Louisa. "Speaking of, you might wanna keep a tight grip on those reins. Or just dismount now and save yourself the injury."

"Why, what-oh," said Ella, her green eyes widening behind her glasses as she spotted Trouble walking past Richard and standing at the top of the ice slide. Both horses looked at each other, breathing slowly through their noses and speaking to each other in friendly nickers. While they were distracted gazing into each other's eyes, Ella quickly dismounted. And not a moment too soon, as the two horses backed up a little and then ran at the ice at a full gallop, whinnying noisily on their way down to the bottom where they ended up rolling in a bank of snow. More snow fell on them from the roof of the log cabin that they'd just crashed into, with Trouble giving a proud neigh while Richard tossed his head to get the snow out of his ears.

From that moment on, Trouble and Richard were inseperable, leaving their poor riders horseless and having to hitch a ride with their friends. But that was okay, Ella could ride with Roo on her North Swedish, Logan, while Louisa rode behind Daine. Trouble was sure that his rider made moon eyes at Daine, or she had, once. Anyway, she didn't seem to mind being near the very warm, very angry man. Daine had trained Trouble once, after Trouble had left his own rider stranded in the very cold place. Unfortunately, though Trouble was more willing to listen to his rider now in races, the main change had been the fact that Trouble had 'corrupted' his brother, Chance, into being a rebellious little troublemaker.

Every time Trouble and Richard found a large clump of snow, they wriggled their way into it until little more than their noses peeked out, their paler faces blending in easily with the snow. Then, the instant an unsuspecting passerby walked past, they'd leap out. They scared (and bowled over) many, many helpers that way, to much rearing up and whinnying and jumping around like foals. They'd been on dates before, of course, but here, in the Winter Village... well, Trouble was beginning to understand why humans were so obsessed with Christmas. The smell of gingerbread, the feeling of snow, how warm Richard's coat was when the humans managed to convince them to snuggle up beneath a shelter by a fire to take a nice group photo... yeah, Trouble was starting to get it.

And then, the humans decided to visit a shopping boutique. The horses had to wait outside, unfortunately, an invisible barrier keeping Trouble away from the tempt- was that a gingerbread house?

"Stupid barrier," Trouble huffed, drawing his head back after the tip of his nose smacked into an invisible wall. These things were all over Jorvik, and they annoyed him to no end. He began trying to walk into it instead, though his hooves slid ineffectively on the snow. It didn't stop him, though. Trouble's ears pricked up as an idea entered his mind, a terrible idea, a devious idea, in short, the best idea he'd ever had. He looked at Richard, who was still pawing at the barrier and hoping to get past it (no dice).

"Walk with me," said Trouble, not stopping the movement of his feet. Richard gave his boyfriend a confused look, ears pinned, so Trouble snorted and, with a toss of his head, continued to slide his hooves in the snow and glanced down at them. "Walk. With. Me."

"Oh," said Richard, and copied his boyfriend's movements, his grey hooves sliding across the snow beside Trouble's. A thrill of excitement went through Trouble as he walked, the skin on his withers quivering. He swished his tail with excitement, feeling the power building up in the barrier. With a whinny, he turned and allowed the barrier to launch him.

The world went by in a blur of snow and helpers diving out of the way and wooden structures, and then CRASH.

Why couldn't he move? Trouble tried to raise his head, to move his legs, but he couldn't. He couldn't feel anything. Well, this was weird. And then, oh no- warmth spreading over him, accompanied by the distant, foggy voices of concerned humans. His rider seemed the loudest, her voice high with distress as her healing hands roved over Trouble's body. He flicked his ear, annoyed when her touch brought pain. And then his ears cleared and he could hear her again.

"...thinking?" she was saying when Trouble could hear again. Trouble snorted, his head falling back into the snow. Wait, why was the snow red? And then he saw Richard's face, peering down at him in concern, and Richard was nosing at his face for some reason, and then-

Trouble distantly heard voices as he swam in and out of consciousness. The snow that he was lying on began to chill him, making him shiver. Richard tried to step closer but was pushed away by a strange woman, one who smelled of the vets. Trouble struggled feebly to get away but of course, he failed. He still couldn't really move, especially when numbness spread through the burning pain in his shoulder. He could feel a tugging sensation, which confused him.

When Trouble finally woke up properly, he found himself lying in some fresh hay in his stall. His shoulder ached, but apart from that, he felt fine. He managed to struggle to his hooves, favouring his right front leg. Some of the other horses were looking at him, nickering their concerns and flicking their ears. Goldmist, the leader of the stables (by virtue of being Aideen-blessed and Louisa's Soul Steed), stretched his neck out over his stall door. Trouble looked around and discovered that he was in the stall right by the front door of the stable, the spot usually reserved for Louisa's favourite, Smokeeye, the bay Andalusian.

"What do you remember?" Goldmist asked, causing Trouble to look back at him.

"Um... I smashed into the cafe?" said Trouble. It was the last thing that he remembered before the pain. Goldmist sighed, coming out as a snort.

"You almost died," Smallhoof, a bay Jorvik Pony, piped up, his eyes huge. "Louisa had to call the vet."

"Oh," said Trouble. He turned his neck, looking at the strange itching sensation on his shoulder. "Oh! Stitches!"

"Your injuries were so extensive that Louisa could not heal all of them," said Goldmist, flicking his tail. "You should be ashamed of yourself, she was distraught at the thought of losing you."

"Hey, I lived, didn't I?" said Trouble. Goldmist snorted, turning his head away.

"Unbelievable," said Goldmist.

Hours passed, and Trouble quickly began to grow bored. He wanted to escape, but too much movement pulled at his stitches, making his wound hurt again. He glared at it, flaring his nostrils and pinning his ears. Stupid cafe, who put it there? It was in the way of prime horse cannoning.

"Yeah, he's awake." Trouble's ears flicked towards the stable door as he turned his body to face the doors. One door opened, admitting a frazzled-looking human. She did look like she'd been crying, and Trouble felt a little bad. Just a little.

"Okay, I guess you can see him, then, Richard," said Ella, and Trouble trotted in place (for a second before his injury yelled at him again) at the sound of her voice and the horse that she'd been speaking to. He gave a whinny of delight as Richard walked through the door, carrying a bunch of flowers of all sorts in his mouth. He stopped in front of Richard's stall, looking at his boyfriend over the door. Trouble gave another whinny, nuzzling Richard's grey ear. Richard tossed his head and showed the flowers to his boyfriend.

"For me?" Trouble asked.

"Humans bring each other flowers when their friends are sick," said Richard around the flowers. Trouble reached his head out and nibbled on the flowers.

"Delicious," said Trouble. Richard nickered, keeping his head still so that Trouble could eat the flowers without moving too much. "Thank you."

"Are you alright?" Richard asked. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine," said Trouble as Richard began to nose about his ears. It tickled as Richard ate gingerbread crumbs from his mane. "I got stitches!"

"Oh dear," said Richard. Trouble snorted.

"They're cool! I hope it'll leave a sick scar," said Trouble.

"Oh, and my rider said to give you this," said Richard, reaching his neck back to snag a card from his ever-present saddlebags. Being a scientist, Ella was always collecting strange samples and carrying around strange equipment. But this card that Richard held in his teeth read 'get well soon'. "All the riders signed it."

"Neat," said Trouble, taking the card and placing it in his hay trough. He could have put the flowers there, but accidental 'kisses' were just part of being a patient. That gave him an idea. "You should be my nurse!"

"I can't change your dressings or anything, though," said Richard.

"Oh, I don't care about that icky stuff, just get me hay and feed it to me," said Trouble. "Also cookies. And you can bring me buckets of water and try to put it in my water trough or just hold it there while I drink."

"I don't think that will work," said Richard.

"Sure it will! You've just gotta believe," said Trouble, giving a determined stomp of his hoof.

"Well... alright," said Richard. "What do you need now?"

"Cuddles," said Trouble. He'd very much liked being snuggled up next to Richard in the little shelter in the Winter Village. More of that couldn't possibly be a bad thing.


End file.
